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Morals  and 
Socialism 

* 

By  Charles  H.  Kerr 

AND 

The  Odd  Trick 

By  Ernest  Belfort  Bax 


POCKET  LIBRARY  OF  SOCIALISM  No.  10* 


Published  by 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY 

(co-operative) 

153  E.  Kinzie  St.,  Chicago 


PREFACE. 


This  booklet  is  not  written  for  special  students 
of  ethics,  but  for  those  who  are  trying  to  solve 
every-day  moral  problems  in  a  practical  way. 
No  claim  is  made  to  originality  and  space  pre¬ 
vents  any  attempt  to  present  proofs  of  the  various 
statements  made.  For  the  facts  relating  to  the 
early  development  of  society  from  communism  to 
slavery,  the  reader  is  referred  to  Prof.  Achille 
Loria ’s  work  entitled  1 1  The  Economic  Foundations 
of  Society.”  The  statistics  of  the  classes  in  the 
United  States  are  taken  from  the  Socialist  Alma¬ 
nac  for  1898.  The  subject  of  sexual  morality  has 
been  omitted  from  the  present  booklet,  partly 
because  the  writer’s  object  here  is  to  suggest  gen- 
oral  principles  of  conduct  rather  than  to  enter  on 
the  endless  detail  of  applying  them,  partly  because 
his  views  on  that  part  of  the  subject  are  stated 
in  his  contribution  to  the  booklet  published  under 
the  title,  “Was  It  Gracia’s  Fault?” 

The  concluding  pages  under  the  title  “The  Odd 
Trick”  are  taken  from  Mr.  Bax’s  admirable  book 
«ntitled  ‘ 1  The  Ethics  of  Socialism.  ’  ’ 


MORALS  AND  SOCIALISM. 

Probably  no  words  are  more  freely  used,  and 
yet  used  with  less  idea  of  what  they  really  mean, 
than  words  expressing  moral  judgments  on  people 
or  actions.  A  is  an  honorable  man,  B  is  shame¬ 
fully  immoral,  Mrs.  C  is  one  of  the  best  women 
that  ever  lived,  Johnny  D  is  the  worst  boy  in  town, 
E  ought  not  to  act  in  that  way— such  things  we 
hear  every  day. 

What  do  they  all  mean?  What  is  a  bad  man? 
What  is  a  good  woman?  Why  ought  one  to  act 
in  any  other  way  than  as  he  likes? 

The  orthodox  Catholic  has  a  ready  answer.  Any 
one  is  good  who  obeys  the  commands  of  God  as 
given  through  the  infallible  Church,  and  he  will 
receive  an  everlasting  reward  in  another  life. 

The  orthodox  Protestant  has  the  same  answer 
with  the  word  Bible  in  place  of  the  word  Church. 

Now  either  of  these  answers  is  very  simple  and 
complete  if  true.  Whether  they  are  true  or  not 

p\90^>l 


4 


MORALS  AND  SOCIALISM 


cannot  be  learned  in  the  world  and  time  we  are 
now  living  in,  but  many  are  willing  to  accept  them, 
without  proof.  If  you  are  one  of  these,  the  rest 
of  this  booklet  will  not  interest  you.  It  is  written 
for  the  working  men  and  working  women  who  are 
outside  the  church,  perhaps  because  they  do  not 
wish  to  accept  teachings  that  cannot  be  proved; 
perhaps  because  they  feel  that  the  church  is  some¬ 
thing  of,  for  and  by  the  “upper”  classes,  and 
that  it  has  no  use  for  the  wage-workers,  nor  they 
for  it. 

That  this  is  the  fact  with  nine-tenths  of  the 
Protestant  churches  in  American  cities  to-day  can 
hardly  be  denied.  Their  whole  influence  (and  this 
is  equally  true  of  Catholic  churches)  is  on  the  side 
of  whatever  will  best  serve  to  strengthen  the  rule 
of  the  capitalist  class.  The  Catholic  churches  still 
retain  a  hold  on  the  less  thoughtful  of  the  laboring 
class,  being  in  this  respect  an  interesting  survival 
of  the  churches  of  the  middle  ages.  The  Protestant 
city  churches  have  long  since  lost  all  but  a  few  of 
their  working-class  members,  and  have  developed 
a  fitting  servility  in  those  they  have  kept. 

The  workers  have  left  the '  churches,  and  think 
they  have  freed  themselves  from  any  control  of 
the  capitalist  class  over  their  consciences.  But 
have  they? 

This  brings  us  back  to  our  first  question :  What 
is  right,  and  what  is  the  reason  for  doing  that 
which  we  call  right  if  it  is  not  at  the  same  time 
the  pleasant  thing  to  do? 


MORALS  AND  SOCIALISM 


5 


It  will  help  us  to  an  answer  if  we  look  back  to 
the  beginnings  of  society,  to  a  stage  like  that  in 
which  the  Roman  historians  found  our  Germanic 
ancestors  in  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era. 
There  each  man  or  woman  was  part  of  a  group 
of  people  who  carried  on  production  or  war,  as 
the  case  might  be,  together.  They  had  not  learned 
how  to  produce  millionaires  or  paupers.  There 
was  just  one  way  for  any  member  of  the  group 
to  secure  more  comforts,  and  that  was  by  helping 
to  increase  the  wealth  of  the  whole  group. 

Under  such  conditions  no  one  would  have  been 
likely  to  say  that  the  golden  rule  was  all  right  in 
theory,  but  that  it  wouldn't  work  in  practice,  nor 
would  the  believers  in  the  golden  rule  have  assumed 
a  sanctimonious  air  and  comforted  themselves  with 
the  hope  of  a  reward  in  heaven.  On  the  contrary, 
doing  as  one  would  be  done  by  was  the  only  sensible 
way  to  live.  Each  person's  own  interests  were 
wholly  bound  up  with  the  group  to  which  he  be¬ 
longed.  His  relations  to  outsiders  were  far  from 
ideal;  he  had  not  the  least  scruple  against  fighting 
them  or  plundering  them  whenever  chance  offered. 
But  inside  the  group  he  had  no  desire  to  steal  part 
of  his  neighbor’s  rations,  since  he  knew  that  the 
neighbor  would  be  likely  in  that  case  to  take  his 
own  in  turn.  If  two  foolish  young  men  came  to 
blows  their  elders  no  doubt  reminded  them  that 
their  arms  would  be  needed  in  the  next  fight  with 
the  neighboring  tribe,  and  that  it  would  not  be  a 
sensible  thing  to  cripple  6ach  other.  So  on  the 


6 


MORALS  AND  SOCIALISM 


.  whole  these  ancestors  of  ours  lived  their  lives 
without  any  doubts  or  fears  or  troubles  over  their 
moral  system. 

Their  primitive  communism,  as  it  is  called,  con* 
tinuing  as  it  must  have  done  through  ages  aftef 
ages,  has  left  in  the  human  mind  an  instinct  for 
mutual  helpfulness — an  instinct  that  modern  civil¬ 


ization  has  never  quite  succeeded  in  destroying. 

The  primitive  communism  itself  was  swept  away 
by  the  forces  of  war.  Tribe  warred  against  tribe; 
the  stronger  absorbed  the  weaker;  gradually  na* 
tions  were  formed  which  carried  on  great  wars 
against  foreign  nations.  By  and  by  the  dis¬ 
covery  was  made  that  the  conquerors  could  obtain 
less  pleasure  by  killing  their  prisoners  than  by 
keeping  them  alive  and  taking  away  the  products 
of  their  labor. 

Here  modern  society  begins.  Equality  has  given 
place  to  mastery  and  slavery.  Since  then  the 
forms  have  twice  changed,  but  the  principle  has 
remained.  The  chattel  slave  has  made  way  for  the 
serf  and  the  serf  has  been  followed  by  the  wage 
laborer.  All  this  has  not  affected  the  position  of 
the  ruling  class,  living  in  luxury  on  the  labor  of 
the  workers. 

We  have  seen  that  under  the  primitive  commun¬ 
ism  the  interest  of  each  individual  was  bound  up 
with  the  interests  of  the  whole  society.  But  since 
slavery  has  begun  the  case  has  become  entirely 
different.  The  interest  of  each  person  is  still  one; 


MORALS  AND  SOCIALISM 


7 


with  that  of  his  own  class,  but  it  has  become  exact* 
ly  opposite  to  that  of  the  other  class. 

It  now  becomes  necessary  for  the  ruling  class 
to  exercise  control  over  its  slaves  and  also  to  a 
large  extent  over  its  own  members.  In  the  case 
of  the  slaves  it  is  important  to  keep  them  from 
revolt  and  to  make  them  industrious.  In  the  case 
of  the  masters  they  must  be  kept  from  quarrels 
among  themselves  which  might  encourage  the  slaves 
to  revolt.  They  must  also  be  kept  from  any  special 
acts  of  wanton  cruelty  against  their  slaves  which 
might  drive  them  to  revolt  and  desperation. 

Note  that  there  is  an  important  difference  be¬ 
tween  the  restraint  over  the  masters  and  that  over 
the  slaves.  The  masters  are  indeed  kept  from 
acting  on  their  own  natural  impulses,  but  only  for 
their  own  advantage  in  the  long  run.  The  slaves 
are  not  only  kept  from  acting  on  their  impulses, 
but  also  from  acting  in  a  way  that  would  really 
be  for  their  own  advantage. 

How  has  the  ruling  class  established  this  con¬ 
trol  over  its  members  and  its  slaves?  In  three 
ways — through  religion,  through  public  opinion, 
and  through  the  law,  with  its  judges  and  soldiers. 
The  last  method,  though  important,  does  not  belong 
to  our  present  subject.  And  space  forbids  our 
taking  up  a  study  of  the  religious  and  philosoph¬ 
ical  systems  of  the  ancient  world  in  their  relations 
to  morals.  We  pass  on  to  the  establishment  of 
Christianity,  and  here  we  come  to  a  remarkable 
paradox. 


8 


MORALS  AND  SOCIALISM 


Jesus*  most  emphatically  condemned  the  robbery 
of  the  poor  by  the  rich.  It  was  probably  this 
which  led  to  his  crucifixion  at  the  demand  of  the 
ruling  classes  of  his  own  nation.  The  mass  of  the 
early  converts  were  poor,  many  of  them  chattel 
slaves.  The  whole  trend  of  the  New  Testament 
teachings  is  toward  communism.  How  then  could 
it  be  used  as  an  engine  of  oppression? 

Tne  answer  is  found  in  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
a  future  life.  In  the  Jewish  Bible,  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment,  this  doctrine  is  wholly  absent.  In  the  re¬ 
ported  sayings  of  Jesus  there  are  traces  of  it  here 
and  there,  many  of  them  suspected  of  being  late 
additions  to  the  manuscripts.  But  in  the  epistles 
oJ^Paul  it  appears  unmistakably,  and  in  the  later 
Christian  writings  the  future  life  grows  to  be  the 
subject  of  chief  concern.  In  an  age  of  persecution 
the  oppressed  Christians  comforted  each  other  with 
dreams  of  a  future  state  in  which  patient  suffering 
should  be  rewarded  with  all  conceivable  delights. 
Borne  up  by  this  faith,  the  slaves  and  laborers  for¬ 
got  the  idea  of  revolt,  and  applied  themselves 
patiently  to  toil  for  their  masters,  looking  for  a 
glorious  reward  in  heaven. 

Early  in  the  fourth  century  the  Emperor  Con- 


*The  present  writer  assumes  the  substantial 
correctness  of  the  gospels  as  a  report  of  the 
general  tenor  of  Jesus’  teaching.  To  those 
who  choose  to  deny  their  historic  character,  it 
will  suffice  to  point  out  that  the  paradox  is  no 
less  worth  study  if  the  Christianity  of  the 
gospels  be  regarded  as  the  thought  of  an  age 
rather  than  of  an  individual. 


MORALS  AND  SOCIALISM 


9 


I 

i 

I 

stantine  and  the  more  sagacious  members  of  the 
ruling  class  came  to  a  realizing  sense  of  this,  and 
Christianity  became  the  state  religion.  Ever  since 
that  time  the  ruling  classes  in  the  most  civilized 

\ 

nations  have  zealously  professed  Christianity  and 
/  have  liberally  supported  it,  while  not  until  lately 
I  has  it  failed  to  give  them  good  value  for  their 
money  by  keeping  the  minds  of  the  working  class 
on  the  things  of  another  world. 

Within  the  last  twenty-five  years  the  general 
acceptance  of  the  evolution  theory  has  weakened 
the  popular  faith  in  heaven  and  hell,  and  the 
shrewder  minds  of  the  capitalist  class  long  ago 
perceived  that  some  more  efficient  means  must  be 
employed  to  keep  the  workers  in  subjection.  With 
their  usual  tact  and  promptness  they  redoubled 
their  activity  in  molding  for  their  own  objects  one 
of  the  strongest  of  all  forces — PUBLIC  OPINION. 

It  is  not  a  pleasant  fact,  but  a  fact  all  the  same, 
that  most  people,  in  the  stage  of  growth  we  have 
thus  far  reached,  do  not  like  to  do  the  hard  think¬ 
ing  needed  to  form  opinions  of  their  own;  they 
prefer  to  take  their  opinions  ready  made.  Until 
lately  they  have  taken  their  ideas  of  right  and 
wrong  from  the  church;  since  they  have  left  the 
church  they  have  given  equal  faith  to  the  ideas 
which  they  find  in  their  children’s  school  books,  in 
their  newspapers,  or  floating  around  among  their 
neighbors. 

Here  let  us  stop  and  try,  in  the  light  of  what  we 
have  gone  over,  to  get  at  the  real  meaning  of  thd 


10 


MORALS  AND  SOCIALISM 


words  “moral”  and  “right.”  The  dictionaries 
will  not  help  us.  They  define  “moral”  as 
“right,”  “right”  as  “ moral/ ’  and  both  of  them 
as  “according  to  the  will  of  God.”  Now  I  believe 
that  the  more  we  examine  the  facts  the  more  fully 
we  shall  be  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  following  \ 
definition : 

In  any  state  of  society,  the  commonly  accepted 
idea  of  moral  or  right  conduct  is  such  conduct  as 
tends  to  increase  the  happiness  and  well-being  of 
the  ruling  class. 

This  is  a  very  broad  statement,  and  an  abstract 
one.  Let  us  test  it  by  examples  and  see  if  we 
get  results  that  seem  true  when  we  apply  it. 

In  Germany,  100  A.  D.,  all  members  of  a  group 
were  equal,  but  they  had  no  fellow  feeling  for 
outsiders.  There  a  good  man'  was  one  who  risked 
his  life  fearlessly  to  bring  victory  for  his  group 
in  war  and  spent  his  labor  prodigally  to  secure 
comfort  and  plenty  for  his  group  in  peace.  The 
most  immoral  conduct  was  cowardice  and  shirking. 

In  Eome  at  the  same  date  the  ruling  class  con¬ 
sisted  of  wealthy  land-owners,  who  were  also  slave¬ 
holders,  and  cultivated  their  vast  estates  by  slave 
labor.  A  pre-eminently  good  man  among  the  ruling 
class  was  one  who  treated  his  slaves  kindly,  so  that 
they  would  not  be  tempted  to  rebel,  and  who 
studied  and  practiced  the  military  art,  so  as  to  be 
of  service  to  the  state  in  suppressing  any  revolt  of 
slaves  or  repelling  any  invasion  of  barbarians. 
Among  the  slaves,  on  the  other  hand,  a  good  man 


MORALS  AND  SOCIALISM 


11 


was  one  who  was  loyally  obedient  to  his  master 
without  any  regard  to  himself  or  his  own  class, 
and  the  worst  criminal  was  one  who  stirred  up  his 
fellow-slaves  to  revolt. 

Now  let  us  look  to  feudal  England  in  the  fif¬ 
teenth  century.  The  ruling  class  was  made  up  of 
soldier-barons  who  owned  large  tracts  of  land,  cul¬ 
tivated  by  people  who  were  free  as  to  their  persons, 
but  were  obliged  to  turn  out  and  fight  for  their 
lord  when  needed  and  to  make  over  to  him  a  cer¬ 
tain  portion  of  their  products  each  year.  A  good 
baron  was  one  who  was  not  too  oppressive  to  his 
people,  but  left  them  enough  of  what  they  earned 
to  enable  them  to  grow  in  numbers  and  to  furnish 
him  with  a  large  and  devoted  troop  of  soldiers  on 
proper  occasions.  A  good  tenant  was  one  who 
worked  hard  to  increase  the  fertility  of  his  lord’s 
land,  and  went  out  cheerfully  to  fight,  perhaps  to 
be  killed,  whenever  his  lord  thought  it  desirable. 

Now  let  us  take  the  United  States  in  the  closing 
year  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  ruling  class 
consists  of  the  owners  of  the  most  wonderful 
wealth-producing  machinery  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  The  subject  class  consists  of  the  people  who 
operate  this  machinery  without  owning  it,  and  who 
receive  for  their  labor  a  small  fraction  of  the 
wealth  which  they  produce.  Here  and  now  a  good 
member  of  the  ruling  class  is  one  who  refrains 
from  any  unusually  oppressive  acts  against  his 
workmen  that  would  incite  to  revolt,  and  who  gives 
his  surplus  wealth  freely  to  charitable  societies 


12 


MORALS  AND  SOCIALISM 


that  keep  the  distress  caused  by  the  wage  system 
from  becoming  dangerously  acute,  and  to  educa¬ 
tional  institutions  that  teach  the  righteousness  of 
capitalism.  A  bad  capitalist  is  one  who  foolishly 
treats  his  laborers  in  a  way  to  make  them  rebel,  or 
who  makes  a  vulgar  display  of  his  wealth  such  as 
might  excite  discontent  among  those  who  .would 
like  to  do  the  same  thing,  but  cannot. 

A  good  workingman  in  American  to-day  is  one 
who  puts  the  most  intense  energy  into  his  work 
for  his  employer’s  benefit,  refrains  from  the  use  of 
beverages  that  might  make  his  labor  less  efficient, 
begets  and  cares  for  enough  children  to  keep  up 
the  supply  of  future  laborers,  but  not  enough  to 
make  part  of  their  maintenance  fall  on  the  tax¬ 
payers,  and,  last  but  not  least,  always  votes  for  the 
political  party  of  his  employer.  A  bad  working¬ 
man  is  one  who  shows  any  marked  interest  in  higher 
wages  or  shorter  hours;  a  “walking  delegate,” 
who  aims  to  unite  his  fellows  in  a  demand  for  bet¬ 
ter  conditions,  is  only  another  name  for  a  dan¬ 
gerous  criminal;  while  a  socialist,  who  dares  to 
denounce  the  capitalist  system,  is,  in  the  eyes  of 
our  ruling  class  and  their  dupes,  a  vile  outcast,  fit 
only  for  the  gallows  or  the  Gatling  gun. 

We  shall  presently  come  back  to  consider  the 
reason  for  the  strange  fact  that  not  only  the  cap¬ 
italist  but  most  other  people  in  America  accept 
these  definitions  of  good  and  bad  as  applied  to  men 
of  wealth  and  of  poverty,  but  first  let  us  apply 
our  general  definition  of  moral  and  right  conduct 


MORALS  AND  SOCIALISM 


13 


to  the  state  of  society  that  is  coining  when  the 
working  class  has  learned  to  unite,  to  act  in  its 
own  behalf,  and  to  control  the  means  of  production 
in  the  interest  of  all. 

When  that  time  comes  the  moral  man  will  be  the 
one  who  does  faithfully  his  share  of  work  for  the 
common  good.  And  under  such  conditions  I  believe 
it  will  be  clear  to  any  thoughtful  person  that  moral¬ 
ity  will  be  the  usual  thing  and  immorality  the  rare 
exception. 

“You  can’t  change  human  nature,”  we  are  told 
by  those  who  talk  without  thinking.  Very  true  in 
the  main;  we  must  deal  with  human  nature  as  it 
is.  Let  us  examine  briefly  the  natural  impulses 
of  this  human  nature  of  ours,  and  see  what  they 
will  lead  to  under  the  conditions  we  are  supposing. 
Most  important  of  these  impulses  are  the  desires 
for  good  food,  comfortable  clothing  and  shelter, 
beauty  of  art  and  of  nature,  pleasant  odors  and 
pleasant  sounds,  social  intercourse,  friendship  and 
love.  Also  to  be.  considered  is  the  natural  im¬ 
pulse,  which  we  may  call  laziness  for  lack  of  a 
better  term,  to  expend  no  more  energy  than  is 
necessary  for  the  attainment  of  any  given  desire. 
Some  claim  that  the  desire  for  wealth  is  inborn 
and  can  never  be  uprooted,  but  a  moment’s  ex¬ 
amination  will  show  this  desire  to  be  a  compound 
of  the  simple  desires  I  have  named,  taken  in  con¬ 
nection  with  the  conditions  of  our  present  life 
under  capitalism.  For  as  society  is  now  adjusted, 
he  who  gets  wealth,  no  matter  how,  can  gratify 


14 


MORALS  AND  SOCIALISM 


most  of  these  desires  with  little  or  no  exertion, 
while  the  man  without  wealth  can  gratify  but  few 
of  them  with  great  exertion.  But  with  private 
property  in  machinery  and  land  abolished,  and 
with  production  carried  on  in  common  for  the 
-common  good,  each  member  of  society  will  be  able 
to  gratify  nearly  all  of  these  desires  by  a  few 
hours  of  social  labor  each  day,  while  if  he  should 
try  to  shirk  this  labor  he  would  find  much  more 
exertion  necessary  to  satisfy  even  a  few  of  his 
desires  in  any  other  way.  Thus  the  same  natural 
impulses  which  now  lead  men  to  plunder  each  other 
will  under  socialism  lead  them  to  help  each  other. 
Then  for  the  first  time  the  golden. rule,  “Whatso¬ 
ever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto  you,  do  ye 
even  so  unto  them,”  will  become  a  possible  and 
natural  way  of  living,  instead  of  something  to 
preach  on  Sundays  and  to  explain  away  on  week 
days. 

But  let  us  come  back  to  America  in  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century’s  ending.  Why  do  the  working¬ 
men — most  of  them — accept  the  moral  ideals  which 
the  capitalist  class  make  for  them?  Why  are  we 
apparently  so  far  behind  Germany  and  France,  not 
to  speak  of  Belgium,  in  intelligence? 

The  means  employed  by  the  capitalists  to  impose 
false  moral  ideas  on  the  people  are  the  same  in  all 
countries — the  church,  the  schools,  the  personal  in¬ 
fluence  of  capitalists  and  their  professional  hire¬ 
lings,  and  especially  books  and  newspapers.  But 
in  America  they  have  the  immense  advantage  of(  a 


MORALS  AND  SOCIALISM 


15 


popular  prejudice  based  on  what  a  hundred  years 
ago  was  a  fact — a  prejudice  to  the  effect  that  in 
America,  unlike  Europe,  there  are  no  social  classes, 
but  that  the  poorest  boy  has  an  equal  chance  with 
the  richest.  The  absurdity  of  this  prejudice  and 
tne  stupidity  or  bad  faith  of  those  who  try  to 
keep  it  alive  are  so  clearly  shown  by  Eobert  Blatchr 
ford  in  the  booklet  entitled  ‘  ‘  Imprudent  Mar¬ 
riages”  that  I  will  not  stop  over  it  here.  Fortu¬ 
nately  it  is  being  uprooted  by  the  logic  of  events,  a 
logic  stronger  than  any  argument. 

As  these  words  are  being  written,  at  the  end 
of  the  year  1899,  the  people  of  the  United  States 
may  be  pretty  accurately  divided  into  five  distinct 
classes : 

1.  The  capitalist  class,  less  than  2  per  cent  of 
the  whole  population,  but  already  controlling  all 
the  great  manufacturing  industries,  the  department 
stories  in  the  principal  cities,  and  the  transporta¬ 
tion  lines  on  which  the  farmers  depend  for  a  market 
and  the  laborers  for  their  food. 

2.  The  small  mercantile  and  manufacturing  class, 
about  8  per  cent  of  the  population,  struggling 
under  a  load  of  debt  and  vainly  trying  to  meet  the 
competition  of  the  large  capitalists. 

3.  The  farming  class,  about  30  per  cent  of  the 
total,  most  of  them  paying  either  a  heavy  rent  or 
its  equivalent  in  interest  on  money,  and  taxed  by 
the  transportation  companies  to  an  extent  that 
leaves  them  in  most  cases  only  the  barest  necessi¬ 
ties  of  life  in  return  for  the  hardest  labor. 


16 


MORALS  AND  SOCIALISM 


4.  The  professional  class,  doctors,  lawyers, 
teachers,  preachers,  newspaper  men,  architects,  etc., 
about  6  per  cent  of  the  population;  formerly  well 
supported  by  the  patronage  of  the  second  class; 
now  competing  against  each  other  for  the  sale  of 
their  services  in  a  rapidly  narrowing  market.^ 

5.  The  class  of  wage  laborers  on  farms  and 
cities,  making  up  with  their'  families  about  55  per 
cent  of  the  population,  producing  nearly  all  the 
wealth  of  the  nation  and  receiving  for  their  labor* 
less  than  one-fourth  of  the  annual  product. 

Now  the  events  that  are  in  progress  involve  the 
transfer  of  every  important  industry  except  possi¬ 
bly  farming  into  the  control  of  the  first  class  and 
the  consolidation  of  the  other  four  classes  into  one. 
To-day  a  union  of  these  four  classes  for  common 
political  action  is  impossible;  the  little  business 
man  fondly  hopes  to  b$  a  millionaire  soon;  the 
professional  man  is  sure  his  exceptional  talent  will 
soon  be  rewarded  as  it  deserves;  the  farmer  impre¬ 
cates  the  wrath  of  heaven  and  hell  on  the  wicked 
socialist  who  would  deprive  him  of  his  hard-earned 
farm,  which  is  going  to  raise  crops  next  year  that 
will  pay  off  that  mortgage;  the  trade  unionist  has 
no  use  for  a  system  that  will  put  his  skill  on  a  level 
with  the  muscle  of  the  common  laborer;  and  the 
hod-carrier  thanks  heaven  that  he  is  getting  enough 
to  pay  for  his  tobacco,  and  will  cast  his  vote  for 
more  prosperity. 

What  is  the  use  of  urguing  against  such  positive 
opinions?  None  at  all,  except  for  the  few  here  and 


MORALS  AND  SOCIALS  M 


17 


there  who  are  willing  to  open  their  eyes  and  to 
think.  But  the  socialists  look  beyond  to-day  and 
see  the  inevitable  outcome  when  trusts,  liquid  air, 
electricity  and  the  superior  efficiency  of  large  pro¬ 
duction  over  small  will  -have  placed  the  lives  and 
fortunes  of  all  these  four  classes  in  the  hands  of 
the  first  class;  when  the  people  of  the  United 
States  can  no  longer  conceal  from  themselves  the 
fact  that  they  are  living  under  an  industrial  des¬ 
potism;  when  they  see  that  individualism  has  be¬ 
come  a  dream  of  the  past,  and  that  the  only  hope 
for  freedom  is  the  abolition  of  classes  and  the 
founding  of  a  co-operative  commonwealth.  All  this 
the  socialist  sees  in  the  near  future  and  he  has  no 
fear  as  to  what  the  choice  of  the  people  will  be. 

And  now,  lastly,  in  this  great  throbbing  mass 
of  life  in  which  we  must  work,  what  is  the  moral 
thing,  the  right  thing,  for  us  to  do,  for  us  who  hear 
the  groans  of  slavery  and  who  see  the  light  of  free¬ 
dom  just  ahead?  If  we  accept  the  moral  standards 
that  we  find  around  us,  we  are  riveting  our  own 
fetters.  Let  us  then  reject  them  once  for  all.  In 
the  better  social  order  that  is  coming,  that  action 
will  be  right  which  is  for  the  good  of  all.  In  the 
battle  that  is  raging  the  right  action  for  every 
worker  and  for  every  lover  of  justice  is  to  do  his 
full  part,  no  matter  at  what  temporary  loss,  to 
spread  the  light,  to  marshal  the  army,  to  shatter 
the  last  fortress  of  oppression  and  establish  tub 
reign  of  Liberty  over  the  earth. 


THE  ODD  TRICK. 

By  E.  B.  Bax. 

We  not  infrequently  hear  a  certain  school  of 
sentimentalists  sneer  at  Socialism  as  holding  before 
men  a  merely  low  sensuous  ideal  of  existence — of 
good  living,  etc.,  etc.  We  are  accused  by  such  of 
neglecting  the  higher  ideals  of  Humanity  for  the 
affairs  of  the  stomach  and  of  still  more  despised 
organs.  The  usual  and  obvious  retort  to  this  sort 
of  thing  is  the  ad  hovnnem  one,  that  the  persons 
who  make  the  charge  are  themselves  sufficiently 
well  cared  for  in  these  lower  matters  to  be  able 
to  afford  to  ignore  them  and  turn  thir  attention 
to  things  above.  But  though  the  gist  of  the  mat¬ 
ter  is  often  contained  in  the  above  retort,  it  is,  as 
it  stands,  crude,  unformulated,  and  impdlite,  even 
if  it  were  always  applicable,  which  it  is  not.  Let  us 
therefore  for  the  nonce  treat  these  people  seriously 
and  develop  the  answer  to  their  objection  in  formu¬ 
lated  fashion.  Eor  in  truth  this  objection  springs 
not  merely  from  deliberate  hypocrisy  or  from 
thoughtlessness,  but  has  its  root  in  the  ethical  code 
in  which  they  have  been  brought  up.  This  ethical 
code  teaches  them  that  all  the  highest  ideals  of 
man's  existence  are  attainable  by  a  voluntary  effort 


20 


THE  ODD  TRICK. 


on  the  part  of  the  individual,  irrespective  of  his 
material  surroundings,  which  are  matters  of  small 
concern.  The  body  is  in  fact  a  thing  rather  to  be 
ashamed  of  than  anything  else. 

I  would  not  say  that  all  our  sentimental  friends 
carry  their  sentiment  to  this  extent,  but  that  this 
principle — the  principle  of  Christian  Dualism  as 
opposed  to  Pagan  Monism — underlies  their  moral 
consciousness  there  can  be  no  doubt.  It  is  of  course 
true  that  this  view  is  facilitated  by  comfortable 
bodily  conditions.  It  is  easier  to  think  meanly 
of  the  “body”  when  the  “body”  is  all  right  than 
when  it  is  not.  And  this  very  fact  gives  us,  as  we 
shall  know  directly,  the  key  to  the  Socialist  position 
on  the  subject.  There  are,  however,  not  a  few 
persons  who  in  all  sincerity  hold  the  view  that  in 
the  overcoming  of  the  body — in  the  minimization 
of  all  bodily  satisfactions — is  to  be  found  the  por¬ 
tal  to  the  higher  life  of  man,  and  who  act  up  to 
their  professions.  Now  it  should  be  observed  that 
to  all  who  earnestly  and  sincerely  accept  the  cur¬ 
rent  ethical  basis,  the  body  still  remains  an  end, 
although  they  profess  to  ignore  it.  It  is  an  end 
to  them  just  as  much  as  to  the  epicure  and  the 
libertine,  although  in  another  wav. 

Now  the  difference  between  this  orthodox  and 
the  Socialist  way  of  viewing  hitman  life  is,  that  the 
Socialist,  while  not  pretending  to  ignore  the  body, 
yet  wishes  that  it  should  cease  to  be  the  main  end 
of  human  life.  At  present  the  satisfaction  of  per¬ 
sonal  bodily  wants  fills  the  mental  horizon  of  the 


THE  ODD  TRICK. 


21 


immense  majority  of  human  beings,  the  only  alter¬ 
native  being  with  those  would-be  virtuous  individu¬ 
als  whose  mental  horizon  is  filled,  to  a  large  extent 
at  least,  with  the  idea  of  the  suppression  of  these 
same  bodily  wants.  That  the  first  of  these  condi¬ 
tions  is  unfavorable  to  the  development  of  a  higher 
life,  be  it  moral,  intellectual,  or  artistic,  few  would 
dispute.  That  the  second  is  scarcely  less  so  is 
equally  obvious  on  a  little  reflection.  For  in  the 
first  place  the  continued  struggle  against  natural 
wants,  to  live  on  next  to  nothing,  to  bear  the  great¬ 
est  privations,  in  itself  draws  off  vast  stores  of 
moral  energy  which  is  wasted  on  mere  suppression. 
But  if  the  victory  is  gained,  if  the  man  does  not 
succumb  in  the  process,  if  his  devotion  to  his  higher 
aim,  of  whatever  nature  it  may  be,  is  so  excep¬ 
tionally  great  as  to  carry  him  through,  what  has 
he  gained  and  what  has  he  not  lost  ?  He  is  purified 
through  suffering,  says  the  Christian.  But  in  how 
many  cases  he  metaphorically  leaves  his  skin  be¬ 
hind  in  the  process,  in  how  many  cases  he  has  lost 
an  essential  part  of  himself,  those  know  who  have 
had  much  intercourse  with  or  have  studied  the  lives 
of  the  exceptional  men  who  have  successfully  strug¬ 
gled  with  adversity,  and  who  have  observed  the 
souredness,  the  one-sidedness,  the  twistedness,  so  to 
say,  of  character  thence  resulting.  No  one  can 
fail  to  admire  and  to  honor  the  strength  of  pur¬ 
pose  which  enables  a  man  to  pursue  a  high 
aifii  in  the  midst  of  privations;  but  no 
one  who  looks  at  the  matter  without  preju- 


oo 


THE  ODD  TRICK. 


dice  and  in  the  light  of  broad  human  interests,  can 
honestly  say  that  the  man  is  better  as  man  for  the 
privations  through  which  he  is  come,  even  though 
he  has  accomplished  his  life-work  in  spite  of  them. 
Instances  of  this  may  be  found  in  Chatterton,  Bee¬ 
thoven,  etc.  Of  course  we  leave  out  of  account 
here  the  fact  that  under  modern  economic  condi* 
tions  it  is  not  a  case  of  being  contented  with  a 
little  which  is  at  least  there,  but  of  a  desperate 
and  exhausting  life-struggle  to  obtain  sufficient 
to  sustain  life  at  all.  We  do  so,  as  we  are  ad¬ 
dressing  not  so  much  the  avowed  opponents  of 
Socialism  as  those  who,  while  professing  to  sympa¬ 
thize  in  a  manner  with  its  aims,  have  lingering 
prejudices  in  favor  of  the  ascetic  or  shall  I  say 
the  “  austere  republican’’  theory  of  life,  and  who 
therefore  view  with  disfavor  the  stress  modern  So¬ 
cialism  lays  on  the  satisfaction  of  mere  material 
wants. 

Even  the  sentimental  moralist  in  question  must 
admit  that  at  the  present  time  the  end-purpose 
of  life  is  for  the  majority  of  men  the  satisfaction 
of  natural  personal  wants.  There  are  not  a  few,, 
it  is  true,  who  pursue  gain  for  the  sake  of  gain, 
but  this  is  generally  after  they  have  satisfied  their 
animal  wants.  Now  the  apparent  ideal  of  certain 
sentimental  moralists  I  have  heard  talk,  is  an  in¬ 
surance  against  absolute  destitution,  and  the  rigid 
repression  of  all  further  desires  over  and  above, 
this  minimum.  The  Positivists  to  a  great  extent 
hold  this  view.  Such  a  state  of  things  they  think 


THE  ODD  TRICK. 


23 


might  be  attainable  (by  a  kind  of  state-socialism 
we  suppose)  within  the  framework  of  present  so¬ 
ciety.  The  theory,  therefore,  is  not  distasteful  to 
those  who  see  that  capitalism  is  unstable  and  indeed 
impossible  to  last  as  at  present  constituted,  but 
who  would  willingly  stave  off  the  complete  over¬ 
throw  of  the  system.  The  latter  are  anxious  merely 
to  retain  their  monopoly  of  the  good  things  of 
life,  but  they  find  a  useful  ally  in  the  introspective 
moralist  who  winces  at  the  idea  of  removing  the 
causes  of  moral  evil  for  fear  of  depriving  the  indi¬ 
vidual  of  the  opportunity  of  “  resisting  tempta¬ 
tion,”  and  who  wants  to  keep  him  deprived  of  the 
comforts  and  conveniences  of  life  that  he  may 
show  his  strength  of  mind  in  being  able  to  do  with¬ 
out  them,  shutting  their  eyes  to  the  fact  that  they 
thereby  perpetuate  moral  evil. 

'  It  is  the  scientific  Socialist  who  alone  seriously 
wishes  to  lead  men  to  higher  aims  than  merely 
sensual  ones,  while  caring  not  one  jot  for  the  empty 
moral  gymnastics  which  are  the  end  of  the  intro¬ 
spective  moralist.  He  sees  that  his  ideal,  human 
happiness,  and  that  in  the  highest  sense,  is  realiz¬ 
able  rather  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  than  in  the 
restraint  of  each,  even  in  the  matter  of  mere  ma¬ 
terial  wants,  and  that  the  corrupting  influence  of 
luxury  hitherto  has  mainly  resided  in  the  fact  that 
it  was  not  enjoyed  by  all.  And  his  theory  is  basM 
on  knowledge  of  the  “nature  of  things.” 

To  the  sick  man  what  is  the  highest  ideal? 
Health.  His  whole  horizon  of  aspiration  is  filled 


24 


THE  ODD  TRICK. 


in  with  the  notion  of  health.  To  him  health  is 
gynonymous  with  happiness.  He  recovers  his  health 
and  he  finds  now  that  there  is  something  beyond 
that  horizon — that  over  the  mountains  there  are 
also  oxen.  Health  now  becomes  a  matter  of  course, 
which  he  accepts  as  such  and  does  not  think  about ; 
his  mental  horizon  is  now  occupied  with  other  ob¬ 
jects.  Had  he  remained  sick  he  might  have  been 
resigned,  but  health  would  still  have  irresistibly 
presented  itself  to  him  as  the  ideal  goal  of  life. 
So  it  is  with  the  completion  of  health,  which  con¬ 
sists  in  tne  full,  the  adequate  satisfaction  of  bodily 
wants.  So  long  as  they  remain  a  desideratum  for 
the  majority  of  mankind,  the  majority  of  mankind 
will  continue  to  regard  them  as  the  one  end  of 
life — notwithstanding  the  precept  and  example  of 
the  heroic  ascetic,  who  despises  such  low  concerns. 
Let  the  mass  of  men  once  have  free  access  to  the 
means  of  satisfaction,  and  they  wall  then  for  the 
first  time  feel  the  need  of  higher  objects  in  life. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  a  trite  observation  that 
all  the  “higher  life”  of  the  world  has  been  car¬ 
ried  on  by  those  classes  who  have  been  free  from 
the  presence  of  material  wants,  not  by  those  who 
have  been  deprived  of  them  or  who  have  renounced 
them.  What  did  the  really  consistent  Christian 
ascetics — the  St.  Anthonies  of  the  fourth  qentury, 
for  example — accomplish  beyond  seeing  visions, 
performing  astounding  feats  of  self -privation,  etc.? 
Were  they  more  than  moral  mountebanks?  Do  we 
not  find,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  monks  who  really 


THE  ODD  TRICK. 


25 


were  historians,  philosophers,  etc.,  spring  from  the 
wealthy  Benedictines  and  other  orders  whose  dis¬ 
cipline  was  1 1  lax,  ’  ’  who  kept  a  well-filled  refectory, 
and  whose  morality  was  said  to  be  questionable? 
led  the  intellectual  life  of  the  middle  ages,  who 
So  long  as  monasticism  remained  ascetic,  intel¬ 
lectual  life  within  the  monasteries  was  impossible. 
Bodily  cravings  and  the  struggle  to  repress  those 
cravings  occupied  men’s  wrhole  attention.  Another 
and  still  more  striking  instance  of  how  the  fact 
■of  every  possible  sensual  enjoyment  being  within 
reach  forces  the  mind  to  seek  satisfaction  in  some¬ 
thing,  which  if  it  is  not  intellectual  is  at  least 
non-sensual,  is  that  of  the  tyrannos  of  the  ancient 
city,  or  the  wealthy  noble,  the  provincial  governor, 
the  pro-consul  or  prefect  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
No  one  can  adequately  conceive  nowadays  of  the 
luxury  and  sensuous  pleasure  in  which  such  char¬ 
acters  as  these  literally  weltered — of  the  gorgeous 
marble  palaces,  of  the  Persian  coverings,  of  the 
Babylonian  couches,  the  wanes,  dishes,  and  spices 
from  every  quarter  of  the  known  world,  of  the  most 
well-favored  concubines  that  could  be  procured  Tor 
money  from  Europe,  from  Asia  and  from  Africa 
— yet ,  strange  to  say,  the  possessor  and  enjoyer 
of  all  these  things  was  never  happy  unless  risking 
them  all  and  his  life  included  on  the  barren  chance 
(in  the  first  instance  mentioned)  of  conquering 
another  city,  or  (in  the  second)  of  intriguing  for 
the  purple,  the  attainment  of  which  experience  had 
taught,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  meant  death 


26 


THE  ODD  TRICK. 


within  a  few  months.  It  was  not  that  the  conquest 
of  the  city  or  the  ascent  of  the  throne  added  to  his 
luxury,  which  would  have  probably  been  impossible 
— this  was  not  his  object,  but  that  having  already 
his  fill  of  all  sensuous  pleasures  he  looked  for 
something  more,  and  this  something  more  he  found, 
in  accordance  with  the  manners  of  his  age,  in  the 
notion  of  glory,  the  glory  of  founding  a  dynasty, 
or  of  being  saluted  absolute  master  of  the  world. 
We  see  a  similar  thing  nowadays  in  the  trades¬ 
man  in  possession  of  all  that  wealth  can  purchase, 
and  in  absence  of  all  intellectual  resources,  who, 
also  in  accordance  with  the  manners  of  his  age, 
finds  his  “something  more”  in  commercial  “ suc¬ 
cess,  ”  which  he  continues  to  pursue  for  its  own 
sake. 

The  introspective  moralists,  Christian,  Positivist, 
or  what  not,  are  therefore  right  when  they  insist 
on  the  satisfaction  of  material  wants  not  being 
regarded  as  the  final  end  of  human  life.  They  are 
only  wrong  in  not  seeing  that  until  obtained  they 
must  necessarily  seem  such  to  the  vast  majority 
of  men.  The  signal  failure  in  history  of  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  repression,  whether  it  take  the  form  of 
the  “ holiness’ *  of  the  Christian,  or  the  more  plausi¬ 
ble  “ascetic  discipline”  of  the  Positivist,  after 
a  reign  of  two  thousand  years  ought,  one  would 
think,  to  give  these  good  people  pause  as  to 
whether  repression  is,  after  all,  so  conducive  to  the 
higher  life  of  man  as  satisfaction. 


THE  ODD  TRICK. 


27 


The  true  telos  of  human  life,  the  “rational  ac¬ 
tivity  ’  ’  of  Aristotle,  1 1  the  beautiful,  the  good,  the 
true”  of  the  young  man  who  is  taking  to  literary 
composition,  may  be  compared,  not  to  speak  it  pro¬ 
fanely,  to  the  odd  trick  in  whist,  which,  though  it 
is  the  object  of  the  hand  to  win,  yet  presupposes 
the  winning  of  six  other  tricks.  Now  the  amateur 
of  the  “goody-goody”  morality — the  perfection¬ 
ist  of  individual  character — thinks  to  make  the  odd 
trick  without  having  completed  his  regulation  half- 
dozen.  The  Socialist  is  rather  concerned’  that  the 
human  race  as  a  whole  should  each  and  all 1 1  make  ’  ’ 
the  first  six  tricks,  called  respectively,  good  and 
sufficient  food  and  drink,  good  housing,  good 
clothing,  fuel,  untaxed  locomotion,  adequate  sexual 
satisfaction,  knowing  that  before  these  are  scored 
the  “odd,”  which  is  the  final  purpose  of  the 
‘ 1  deal,  ’  ’  will  be  impossible.  With  bad  and  insuffi¬ 
cient  food,  with  small  and  squalid  dwellings,  with 
scanty  and  shoddy  clothing,  with  insufficient  firing 
in  cold  weather,  with  the  lack  of  change,  and 
with' inadequate  satisfaction  of  a  sexual  kind,  man 
may  exist;  but  he  (i.  e.,  the  average  man)  will  see 
nothing  but  these  things  in  front  of  him,  his  ideal 
will  still  be  them,  and  nothing  else  but  them.  When 
once  he  possesses  them  they  become  a  part  of  his 
ordinary  life,  and  he  ceases  to  think  about  them. 
His  horizon  is  then  extended.  He  sees  the  final, 
purpose  of  his  life  in  things  of  which  before  hJ 
had  never  dreamed.  M 


28 


THE  ODD  TRICK. 


Once  more,  I  repeat,  let  us  make  no  mistake,  all 
asceticism,  all  privation,  is  in  itself  an  unmitigated 
-evil.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  there  are  occasions 
when  it  is  our  duty,  living  in  a  period  of  struggle, 
to  deprive  ourselves,  to  sacrifice  ourselves,  for  a 
better  society.  But  even  this  deprivation,  this  sac¬ 
rifice,  is  in  itself  an  evil.  It  only  becomes  a  good 
if  it  is  undergone  with  the  purpose  of  putting  an 
end  to  the  sempiternal  privation  and  sacrifice  which 
civilization  imposes  on  the  majority  of  our  fellow- 
creatures.  One  can  well  appreciate  the  sacrifice 
of  ourselves,  the  men  of  this  generation,  when 
necessary  for  the  future,  in  all  the  respects  named; 
but  I  confess  that  did  I,  like  the  Christians,  the 
Positivists,  and  the  sentimental  Socialists,  such 
as  I  understand  Count  Tolstoi  to  represent,  belief 
privation  and  sacrifice  (even  “  ascetic  discipline’  ’)# 
be  it  in  the  most  groveling  of  material  matters,  t* 
be  the  permanent  lot  of  Humanity,  my  ardor  i* 
the  cause  of  progress  would  be  considerably 
damped. 

One  can  scarcely  conceive  the  nobler  ."’ife  which 
will  result  from  generations  of  satisfied  (rathor 
than  repressed)  animal  desires,  once  tjiey  are  the 
lot  not  of  this  or  that  class,  but  of  all.  -With  food, 
drink,  and  other  creature  comforts  to  be  had  for 
the  asking,  they  will  cease  to  occupy  the  atten¬ 
tion  of  human  beings  to  an  extent  previously  un¬ 
known  in  the  world’s  history.  Then  for  the  first 
Bime  will  the  higher  aspirations  and  faculties  of 
^in  have  free  play,  the  “something  more,”  the 


THE  ODD  TRICK. 


29 


“odd”  trick,  which  is  the  real  goal  of  human 
life,  will  assume  a  new  character  and  be  pursued 
with  an  energy  rivaling  that  hitherto  devoted  to 
personal  gain,  ambition  or  glory,  since  the  path 
to  these  things,  at  least  in  the  old  sense,  will  have 
been  closed  forever. 


GERMS  OF  MIND  IN  PLANTS. 

Translated  from  the  German  of  R.  H.  Franca 
by  A.  M.  Simons.  Cloth,  50  cents. 

This  is  the  second  volume  of  the  Library  of 
Science  for  the  Workers.  It  is  entertaining,  be¬ 
cause  written  in  a  charming  style  and  dealing 
with  strange  and  interesting  facts  about  plants. 
It  is  important,  because  it  supplies  an  essential 
link  in  the  chain  of  evidence  which  proves  the 
correctness  of  the  Socialist  philosophy,  according 
to  which  the  mental  and  the  social  life  of  man 
are  subject  to  the  same  unchanging  laws  which, 
operate  throughout  the  material  universe.  In 
view  of  the  revolutionary  tendency  of  the  book, 
it  is  hardly  to  be  expected  that  capifalist  re¬ 
viewers  should  be  prejudiced  in  its  favor,  yet 
Lere  is  what  they  say: 

Toledo  Blade:  A  work  of  unusual  interest, 
( lealing  with  the  wonders  of  plant  life  and  other 
botanical  marvels.  The  idea  worked  out  in  the 
book  is  that  plants  are  living  beings  which 
receive  impressions  from  the  outside  world,  and 
act  on  those  impressions  for  their  own  advance¬ 
ment,  as  do  human  beings.  *  *  *  The  book 

is  illustrated  and  the  style  of  its  writing  is  very 
pleasing. 

Grand  Rapids  Herald:  The  book  would  be  a 
delightful  help  in  the  study  of  botany. 

Pittsburg  Leader:  This  is  a  delightful  and 
fascinating  book. 

Denver  Republican:  There  is  much  informa¬ 
tion  on  the  habits  of  plants  and  not  a  little  enter¬ 
taining  reasoning  in  this  book. 

Detroit  Evening  News:  No  greater  service  can 
be  performed  than  the  popularizing  of  scientific 
knowledge  as  is  happily  accomplished  in  this 
l-ittle  volume. 

Boston  Transcript:  A  little  illustrated  volume 
(dealing  sympathetically  with  nature  from  a  prof¬ 
itable  scientific  and  popular  standpoint. 

IhaRLES  H.  KERR  &  C0„  153  E.  Kinzle  Si..  Chicago 


SCIENCE  AND  REVOLUTION. 

By  Ernest  Untermann.  Cloth,  50  cents. 

In  this  work  the  author  traces  the  development 
of  the  evolution  theory  from  the  earliest  scientific 
writings  that  have  been  preserved  down  to  the 
present  time.  He  shows  that  throughout  his¬ 
tory  there  have  been  two  opposing  tendencies 
in  the  interpretation  of  the  facts  of  the  universe. 
Ruling  classes,  living  on  the  labor  of  others, 
have  constantly  supported  in  some  form  or  other 
the  idea  of  a  supernatural  power  to  be  recognizee 
as  supreme,  while  the  rebellious  workers  havt 
slowly  been  evolviuf;  the  conception  of  the  unii 
verse  as  one  and  seif-controlled. 


Table  of  Contents 


1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 


Proletarian  Science. 

The  Starting  Point.  f! 

The  Awakening  Philosophy.  < 

A  Step  Forward  in  Greece.  < 

A  Step  Backward  in  Rome. 

In  the  Slough  of  Ecelestiastic  Feudalism, 
The  Struggle  for  More  Light. 

The  Resurrection  of  Natural  Philosoph 
in  England. 

9.  Natural  Philosophy  in  France. 

10.  A  Reversion  to  Idealism  in  Germany. 

11.  In  the  Melting  Pot  of  the  French  Revo 
lution. 

12.  The  Wedding  of  Science  and  Natural 

Philosophy. 

13.  The  Outcome  of  Classic  Philosophy  in 
Germany. 

14.  Science  and  the  Working  Class. 

15.  The  Offspring  of  Science  and  Natural 

Philosophy. 

16.  A  Waif  and  Its  Adoption. 

17.  Materialist  Monism,  the  Science  and  Re¬ 
ligion  of  the  Proletariat. 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  CO.,  153  E.  Ktazie  St.,  Chicag, 


The  publishing  house  that  issues  this 
booklet  is  not  owned  by  any  capitalist ; 
it  is  owned  by  two  thousand  working 
people  who  expect  no  dividends,  but 
have  subscribed  ten  dollars  each  for 
the  purpose  of  having  socialist  books 
published  and  securing  the  privilege  of 
buying  as  many  of  them  as  they  want 
at  cost. 

A  full  catalogue  with  particulars  of 
our  co-operative  plan  will  be  mailed  on 
request.  It  should  be  observed  that  we 
do  not  supply  books  of  other  publish¬ 
ers,  and  have  no  connection  with  any 
periodical  except  the  International  So¬ 
cialist  Review.  This  is  an  8o-page 
monthly,  a  dollar  a  year,  10  cents  a 
copy,  postpaid. 

Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Company, 

153  Kinzie  Street,  Chicago. 


